Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 14, 2017)

"Honeymoon couple, honeymoon couple,” 40 ladies teased in a chorus as Karuna aka Lali Dhawan cut a two-tier cake, stuffing the first piece into filmmaker-husband David’s mouth at her 60th birthday bash on Monday which kicked off at 10 pm. The birthday girl’s school, college and industry friends, including Jaya Bachchan, Sunita Kapoor, Rita Dhody, Arti Surendrenath and Pammi Bakshi turned up at a popular Bandra eatery. The party was organised by her sons, Rohit and Varun.

The boys walked in 10 minutes before midnight with their father. Soon after, they were whisked off to the dance floor by the ladies, who had by then insisted that the staff put on some retro Hindi tracks. “Varun, who has grown up around his mother’s friends, danced with his favourite aunties. Everyone made sure to plant a peck on his cheek and Varun managed to steal the spotlight from his mother for a while,” laughs a guest from the bash, adding that the 30-year-old actor, who is presently filming Judwaa 2 in Mumbai, had an early call-time the next day and snuck out at 1am. “He escorted Jaya Bachchan who was exiting at the same time, to her car,” the guest adds.

Salman Khan’s Romanian girlfriend Iulia Vantur raised eyebrows with her arrival — photographers assumed she was there to catch a solo dinner but a source reveals that she was on Lali’s guest list, and, egged on by fellow revellers, crooned to a round of applause.